BlackNGold
Club Member
Here's what happened, fwiw.
High School football coaches are celebrities in the state of Texas. They draw a lot of water. Mack Brown was extremely political with them and allowed recruiting decisions to be based on politics. If a kid was an all-state player in Texas for one of the big programs, UT did not take a kid from out-of-state even if they liked him a lot better. This is also about booster money. The same boosters paying the way at UT often spend a lot of money as boosters for their local high school.
Anyway, Mack Brown kissing asses and playing the game worked for a long time. For whatever reason, it stopped working. Now Strong came in and told that good ole boy network of coaches and boosters that he'll be making his own decisions on who he recruits... and it may not be who folks think UT should be recruiting. That's fine (and probably the correct approach), but Strong isn't a schmoozer and he couldn't deliver this message without pissing people off.
What this means for CU is that the door is open. I don't know whether Chambers is the guy or not, but it's going to take someone who can tap into that good ole boy network. Recruiting Texas is not like recruiting other places.
Mack Brown basically retired when he won the MNC unfortunately he did not leave the position. He got lazy, filled his classes in June and did no in depth evaluation of players into their senior season. They did no work if player did not verbal to them right away (did not compete for the Big Dogs). This culture permeated the program - which as you point out felt entitled. Strong has his work cut out for him but will probably have a top 10 class this year with guys that he is really competing for. I hear Texas may have 30 commits.